Words for Saintly Golden Light

Words for Saintly Golden Light Words for Saintly Golden Light Words for Saintly Golden Light By Maeve Maddox Everyones familiar with the word halo in the sense of a circle of light behind or above the head of a saintly person in a painting. The word halo comes from a Greek word meaning disk of the sun or moon. The first recorded use in English of halo with the sense of light around the head of a holy person or deity is 1646. However, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and other non-Christian cultures used the symbol in art to denote divinity or prestige. Gods and rulers were often depicted with halos. In addition to the halo, artists have used other symbols to denote saintliness or divinity. Writers may find some of the terms for these symbols useful in describing not just supernatural characters, but to convey certain effects of light. The word nimbus is sometimes used as a synonym for halo, but it has the primary meaning of a bright or luminous cloud or cloud-like formation supposedly enveloping or surrounding a deity or supernatural being OED The aureole is another word sometimes used as a synonym for halo, but is frequently used to denote a light emanating from the entire body of the holy figure. The OED offers this note on the definition of aureole: Didron (Iconographie Chrà ©tienne p. 109) by a strange blunder takes aureola for a diminutive of aura ‘emanation, exhalation,’ and defines it as a mantle of light emanating from and enveloping the body, as distinct from the nimbus, which he confines to the head. This definition, which reverses the historical use both of aureola and nimbus, is not accepted in France (see Littrà ©), but has been copied by Fairholt, and various English Dictionaries. A diminutive of Latin aureus golden, the aureole was used in medieval Christian art to indicate the heavenly crown earned by martyrs and virgins. The mandorla is an almond-shaped panel or decorative space, usually framing an image of Christ. The name comes from the Italian word for almond. One of the many definitions of glory is the circle of light represented as surrounding the head, or the whole figure, of the Saviour, the Virgin, or one of the Saints. The OED gives the word gloriole as a synonym for both aureole and halo. All of these terms have other uses. For example, nimbus comes from a word for cloud and, like halo, has weather applications as well. You can see illustrations of the different types of saintly symbolism at these Wikipedia sites: aureole and mandorla Apollo with a halo This site mentions an interesting use of the glory in religious art. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Good At, Good In, and Good WithTime Words: Era, Epoch, and Eon9 Forms of the Past Tense